Alice: Inside the Looking Glass
by Lady Moon-Chan
Summary: You've never read a more twisted Alice in Wonderland...full summary inside!
1. Prologue: In Which it Begins

Alice: Inside the Looking Glass

Lady Moon-Chan

**Response to DamnBlackHeart's FOS fanfiction challenge. Alice Walker's pet cat Dinah accidentally starts a fire in the Walker home, leaving only Alice alive. A heavily burned and mentally scarred Alice is sent to the hospital, where she encounters the dark and twisted Wonderland and becomes a rallying-point for the rebels intent on defeating the evil Queen of Hearts. Eventual AlicexCheshire.**

**Prologue: In Which it Begins**

Alice was on edge. She couldn't help it. She didn't even know _why_. Nothing was amiss. The props for the Halloween haunted house were in place, Dinah was confined to her carrier so she couldn't get at the candles or oil lamps, and her costume fit like a glove.

Her sister Rosemary told her not to worry. "Cocktails are ready at your fahvorite tahble in the cornair, Mademoiselle Walkair." And then she'd done her flawless impression of the waiter at the four seasons.

"I'm _alright_, Ro. Stop worrying." Alice snapped, adjusting the high, stiff collar of her vampiress costume.

"Alright, Al. I'll take your word for it." Rosemary said, smoothing out the tunic of her home-made ghoul costume. She grinned, showing off fanged dentures. "Well, it's show time. Let's get going."

Alice followed her sister down to the front door, firmly shutting the pessimistic feeling that something terrible was going to happen tonight out of her mind. It turned out to be the biggest mistake she'd ever made.

It was all over the papers for the next few weeks. The devastating fire at the four floor colonial revival the Walkers owned that had killed everyone inside but the youngest daughter, 19 year old Alice. How Alice had first and second degree burns over her back, shoulders, and legs, burns that would have been much more severe if the middle daughter Rosemary(23) who had shielded her sister from more serious harm at the cost of her own life. And how Alice was being sent to the hospital at Watertown, Mass., to heal her body as well as her heart.

But what the papers didn't know, what no one could possibly know, is that Alice would do more than just heal at Watertown. She would save a world from the tyranny of a dark and terrible queen, and find the love of her life.

**AN: Well? How was it? Did you hate it? Like it? Think it was the creepiest piece of shiz you ever read? Let me know in a review! Peace out, yo!**


	2. Chapter 1: In Which Alice Discovers

Alice: Inside the Looking Glass

Lady Moon-Chan

**Alice: Inside the Looking Glass**

**Lady Moon-Chan**

**AN: Chapter 1, where the real creepiness starts! Nyeeheeheeheeheehee! Read and review please! begs like Gram's dog Tobey**

**Chapter 1: In Which Alice Discovers 'Wonderland'**

"I can't believe they're gone." Alice heard herself say. "Mom and Dad...god, Mom used to say 'Alice, we are not leaving until you settle down with a nice husband, or at least use some random guy to make us some grand-babies,' and now..." Alice buried her face in her hands, sobbing.

"Alright. Now, let's move onto your sisters. Eleanor and Rosemary." said the doctor.

"Ella was...the bold one. You came away from her thinking she was ten feet tall, when really she barely broke 5'3''. And she was the beauty queen of the family. Long, dark hair, pale skin, spider scrawl lashes, dark eyes. Everyone thought she looked like a queen."

"And Rosemary?" the doctor prompted.

"Ro was the funny one. She could make a funeral party laugh. And she did the best impressions."

"Like what?"

"The French waiter from the Four Seasons. Cartoon characters, movie characters. She talked like a Japanese houseboy on her voice mail." She sobbed again. "Please. I can't do anymore."

"Very well, Miss Walker. No more for today. It must seem cruel to do this so soon after you've lost them, but only by honoring their memories and cherishing the memories you made with them that you can move on. For instance, what would Eleanor say if she could see you now?"

"She'd tell me to get off my ass and stop moping."

"That's what you do then."

"But how? I miss them so much. I can't ever forget."

"I know." the doctor's voice grew warm. "We can never forget our lost loved ones. Nor would we want to. But because we are human, in time, we get over the pain and move on. That's all I'm trying to help you do."

Alice nodded in understanding. "Doctor, is it alright if I go and sit in the courtyard for awhile? I don't think I can bear to sit in the room just yet." she couldn't bring herself to call the blank, empty hospital room she'd been assigned "my room".

_Her_ room had the cliff-overlooking-the-sea mural Ella had helped her paint, shelves full of gymnastics awards she'd won, a flimsy paper 'book' of Ro's limericks, a framed copy of the witty ballad Ro's creative writing professor had urged her to publish one day, a recent family portrait on one corner of the desk, the "baby" book her sisters had helped her make for Dinah, her books, her radio, and her computer.

The hospital room was blank and soulless. It didn't belong to anyone. Any residents who brought belongings took them with again when they left. A nurse who felt the same way about it had helped Alice order some flowers and candles in an attempt to make the room more homey. It didn't work.

"Yes, Alice. I'm sure that will be fine until you have to take your pain meds. Is there a particular nurse you'd like to come get you when it's time?" the doctor asked.

"The girl who helped me order flowers for the room, please. Monroe, I think her name was...?"

"Nurse Monroe it is, then. Well, off you go, Alice." said the doctor, patting her hand. She was free to go.

She headed for the garden she could see from the only window in the room. It contained a small willow tree, some peach trees, and a koi pond with a three inch high waterfall. She laid on her stomach, staring at the fish, when she caught a glimpse of _it_. A slender white hand in the pond, making a 'come hither' motion. Alice frowned, reaching into the pond near the hand. When she raised her hand, she was holding a clump of long, long black hair. She flung it back into the water.

Then, when she blinked, the hand and the clump of hair were both gone. Alice sighed and closed her eyes. "I knew I missed Ella, but that's just plain crazy." Then, she heard rustling in the nearby bushes. When she went over to investigate, she saw a little white rabbit pushing rocks away from the entrance to a small cave. It dug a few more away, then dove into the hole it had just created.

Alice blinked curiously, then pushed the rest of the rocks away, judging the size of the cave entrance. She'd have a little leeway if she held her stomach in...she blinked. "Wait, what am I thinking? I'm in no condition to be doing this. I should just go back to the room, ring for Nurse Monroe, and ask her if I can borrow a book from her." But even as she said the words, Alice felt something calling to her, promising she would never feel any pain again, if only she followed the rabbit.

"Follow...the rabbit..." Alice murmured. Her eyes glazed and a vague, unexplainable smile made it's way to her lips as she crawled into the hole.

It was dark. The promise began to lose it's effect in the thick, choking, eternal darkness, and Alice started to wonder why she was even doing this, when suddenly there was no cave floor beneath her and she was falling in the darkness- which was no longer all that dark.

The cave around her was now light with red and black light, revealing high gothic medieval style time pieces all around as far as the eye could see, and the fall seemed to go on forever. Alice would have screamed, but she was floating down like a feather. Then, all of a sudden it was over.

She could see the rabbit again, hopping down a long, black and white tiled hallway to a moldy red velvet curtain, which it disappeared behind. When Alice reached the curtain, she pulled it away to reveal a warped, decayed wooden door, with a rusting silver key in the tarnished brass lock. "How weird," she murmured, turning the key. There was a clicking noise, and the door swung open. Alice walked through.

Instantly, she found herself surrounded by a forest of dead trees, standing at a fork in a well-worn path. A sign told that the left fork led to "Here" and the right led to "There".

"I don't care if they lead to Heaven and Hell, where's the exit?" Alice muttered.

"Oh, you won't find an exit here." said a new voice.

**AN: Ooooh, cliffie! Review and I'll post the next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 2: In Which Alice Meets

**Alice: Inside the Looking Glass**

**Lady Moon-Chan**

**Chapter 2: In Which Alice Meets the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter**

Alice whirled.

Sitting behind her on the path was a large, tawny cat with intelligent golden eyes. As she watched, it grinned toothily at her. "Yeah," it said, tail twitching in amusement, "I talk." Alice could only stare in shock, which made the cat frown. "It's rude to stare. And it's equally rude not to introduce yourself."

"I'm sorry." Alice said, curtsying politely. "My name is Alice Walker. And I didn't mean to be rude. Cats just don't talk where I come from."

"What a shame. We are a sensitive and intelligent race." the cat said with another grin.

"I'll take your word for it." Alice said. "Now what did you mean by 'there's no exit here'?"

The cat opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a trumpet blast. It looked alarmed. "Hide!" it ordered her. There's a hole in the back of the tree behind us that you should be able to squeeze through no problem." it pointed to clarify which tree behind them it was referring to.

Alice ducked behind it, peering around the trunk. The cat trotted around the tree to join her. As Alice watched, a troop of card-soldiers of all suits appeared, and at the heart of the procession, the four jacks carried a palanquin on which sat a pale woman whose black hair was braided and coiled on her head like a crown, liquid dark eyes, and spider-scrawl eyelashes wearing the dress of the queen of hearts, along with a golden tiara and scepter. Her lovely face was imperious and cold, but still..."Eleanor..." Alice whispered. She made to move from her hiding spot.

The cat urged her back. "Thar's _not_ your sister!" it hissed. "That's the Queen of Hearts! She's wearing your sister's face to confuse you and make you trust her!"

After the procession passed, Alice turned to the cat. "How do you _know_ these things-" she stopped. "I just realized I don't know your name."

"In this form I'm called the Cheshire Cat. As for the rest- well, I'll tell you someplace else. It's not safe to talk about here. Anything and anyone could be listening. But I know a safe place to talk. Follow me- and be quick. The queen's procession will probably double back soon."

The Cheshire Cat trotted off in the opposite direction the queen's procession had gone in, and Alice followed, trotting herself to keep up with the cat.

They stopped at a twisted, broken white picket fence. In the middle of the overgrown yard beyond the fence was a multi-level brick dwelling that looked as though it shouldn't be standing still, and on the gate was a crooked sign that read "Keep out. Property of the Mad Hatter".

"The Mad Hatter?" Alice asked. The cat grinned.

"The Hatter's harmless. You want to see mad? Go visit the March Hare sometime."

Alice's only response was to give him an odd look and push open the gate.

When they got to the door, the cat pawed it, and a haggard looking man with graying blonde hair and sky blue eyes in a ragged suit answered, looking relieved. "Oh, Cat, it's only-" he stopped at the sight of Alice. "Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Someone we need to keep safe." The Cheshire Cat said mystically, tail twitching in nervousness. "Now let us in, Hatter."

"The crow caws at midnight." said the Mad Hatter.

"And the zombie flees the dawn." The Cat responded. "Can we _come in _now?"

The Hatter opened the door fully, letting them in.

"So let me get this straight," Alice said after the two men had finished explaining everything a short time later, "The Queen of Hearts called me here by means of her second-in-command, the White Rabbit, because there was a prophecy made when she came to the throne that a 'golden star of hope' would come here to Wonderland to overthrow her, and she called me here to eliminate me, even though she doesn't believe the prophecy?"

The Mad Hatter bowed his head. "Unfortunately for you, that is correct. She also performed a sweep when she first came to the throne many years ago."

A memory, dim as if it had been made in another lifetime, came back to Alice then. Sitting on the couch with Rosemary almost a year before the fire, watching an 'Unsolved Mysteries' special on a rash of disappearances in the 1950s. The victims were all blonde, blue-eyed women of Saxon descent between the ages of 18 and 30, the same as Alice. There had been no sightings, no plane, bus, or train tickets sold to them, no mysterious new bank accounts in their names, no use of their names on any kind of documents, no bones, no ransom demands, no notice that they were planning to go anywhere. It was as if the women had simply been wiped from the face of the planet.

Rosemary had stared at Alice in shock for a few moments after the show ended, before saying. "Jesus, Al. You could have been one of them in another lifetime." The most chilling part, though, was that one of the victims, Alice Winters, had been barely three years older than Alice herself, and they could have been twins if not for Alice Winters' freckles. Despite herself, Alice shivered.

"That's why, no matter the cost, we're going to find a way to protect you and send you back home." the Cheshire Cat assured her.

**AN: dun dun dun dun! How will Alice react? Tune in next chapter to find out! (imitating Bali-lali from Bizenghast) And leave me some reviews!(disappears)**


	4. Chapter 3: In Which Alice Carries

**Alice: Inside the Looking Glass**

**Lady Moon-Chan**

**AN: Two updates in one night is a good sign...means I'm into the story and won't leave it to languish, unlike some of my other stories... coughTwiningMagicscoughcough, but anyway, read, review, and remember that I don't own Alice in Wonderland, but I do own the plot details of this story(the basic idea was a challenge, remember)**

**Chapter 3: In Which Alice Carries the Torch**

"But what good will that do?" Alice asked. "If I go back, she'll just do to me what she did to those women she found in the found in the sweep. The only way to keep anyone safe is to take down the Queen of Hearts." Alice said strongly, pounding her fist against the table.

The Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter looked at her wide eyes. "Alice, turn around and pull the back of your shirt up." the cat ordered.

"What? Why?" Alice asked, blushing.

"It's just a theory I have. I won't try anything, I promise."

Even though she'd the only met the cat a short time ago, something about him made Alice trust the creature with her life. So, taking him at his word, she turned her back to him and lifted the back of her shirt. She heard both the Cat and the Hatter gasp.

"Alice," the cat said slowly, "the mark on your back- the cross with the 'x' through it at the crossbar- how did you get it?"

"It's a birthmark." Alice answered. "Why?"

"That's the same mark the 'golden star of hope' is supposed to have, in the exact spot it's supposed to be." the Cat told her.

"So you think I'm this 'golden star of hope', then?" Alice asked.

"That would appear to be the case." the Hatter replied. "I suppose the 'golden' part must be on account of your hair." he mused.

"So, now what?" Alice asked, sitting down.

"Now we come up with a way for you to fulfill the terms of the prophecy." said the Cheshire Cat. "But I have to warn you, it'll be dangerous. There's a very high chance that you could die in the process." his tail twitched.

"That's fine." Alice said. "I have nothing to go back to anyway." She thought about the fire. The four funerals at once- how all but one of the caskets had to be closed. Mom's sweet face, charred beyond all recognition, Dad, burned down to almost bones, beauty queen Eleanor charred and blackened like the remnants of their house. Only Rosemary's casket could be open. Rosemary, who had sheltered herself and Alice in a closet so they might have a chance of survival. Who had held onto Alice and suffered severe burns all down the back of her body because of it. Who had died of smoke inhalation to save Alice's life. Rosemary's face and hands and strawberry blonde hair hadn't been burned, so she was buried in her favorite dress(pale green satin, empire waist, long, tapered sleeves) with her hair spread out around her face like a pale fire.

It wasn't right, Alice reflected, for someone as lively and active as Rosemary to be so unnaturally still.

"Alice? Alice?" the Cheshire Cat asked in concern, waving a paw in front of her face.

"I'm alright, just...bad memories attached to the word 'home' is all." she murmured, putting a hand to her head.

"If you don't mind my asking, what happened?" the Mad Hatter asked.

"There was a terrible fire. I was the only one who lived. My parents and eldest sister burned to death, and my other sister died of smoke inhalation to save _my_ life." Alice said softly.

"I'm terribly sorry." the Mad Hatter said, sweeping his top hat off and bowing his head. "I understand how you must be feeling. My Dinah let the rebels fighting against the Queen of Hearts take shelter here, and a few days later she contracted the Mineral Disease and died after about six months."

He moved to his bookshelf and took down a small, framed portrait of a very pretty girl with pale skin, blue-green eyes framed by thick, dark eyelashes, coffee-colored angel curls, and a sweet smile. She wore an old-fashioned burgundy dress with an equally old-fashioned black velvet hat. If Alice didn't know better, she'd have thought the picture was that of an antique porcelain doll.

'She looks just like Nurse Monroe,' Alice thought. But what came out of her mouth was, "Oh, she was beautiful."

The Hatter nodded. "She was one of the most beautiful women in Wonderland. She was never vain about it, but the Mineral Disease was a crushing blow all the same." He looked up at Alice, a glow of determination coming to his eyes. "That is why I will help you in any way I possibly can."

**AN: Whoo, let's hope for Alice's sake that she succeeds, else the Hatter might just whoop her! Oh, but then the Cheshire Cat would have to beat him to a bloody, bloody pulp for hurting his girl...AlicexCheshire all the way! w00t!**


	5. Chapter 4: In Which the Cheshire Cat's

Alice: Inside the Looking Glass

Lady Moon-Chan

**AN: Well, here's chapter 4. Hope people like. And I hope someone who's been recorded reading this reviews, because I know they're out there! examines readers under a magnifiying glass.**

**Disclaimer: If I was Lewis Carroll, I'd be dead, and thus unable to type this now. Thus, I do not own Alice in Wonderland. However, I own the plot details and the Cheshire Cat's smexy human form, even if it is based off Hiromu Arakawa's Ed Elric.**

**Chapter 4: In Which the Cheshire Cat's Past is Revealed!**

"Cheshire Cat," Alice said softly as they headed for the home of the March Hare.

"Yes, Alice?" His eyes seemed like a pair of golden pinpoints in the dark as he turned to look at her.

"When you introduced yourself to me, you said you were called the Cheshire Cat 'in that form'. I was wondering if you could tell me what you meant by that?"

The Cat laughed sikily. "Alice, Alice, Alice. Certainly I _can_ tell you. It's all a matter of whether or not I _will_ tell you."

"Will you?" Alice asked pleadingly.

The Cat laughed again. "Sure. It was only a joke, you know." Alice's only response was to blush in embarrassment.

"Before the Queen of Hearts took the throne, I was an inventor -the inventor- in the court of the White Queen."

"The White Queen?" Alice asked.

"She was the rightful ruler of Wonderland. Under her, this land was peaceful and prosperous." The Cat explained, sounding nostalgic.

"Whatever happened to her?" Alice wondered aloud.

"After she was dethroned, she fled and those who still remained faithful to her hid her someplace deep within Wonderland. The only one who knew her exact whereabouts was the March Hare, and she drove herself insane so that she could never tell anybody where."

"So then why are we going to see her?" Alice asked. "And finish your own story."

"We're going to see her because all of us are on the same side. Because of that, insane as she is, she'll leave clues in her riddle-talk for us to decipher. And as for me, when the Queen of Hearts took the throne, I was much too loyal to the White Queen for her liking. So, she transformed me into the Cheshire Cat and exiled me from the castle." he sounded angry.

"What was your real name? I feel awful calling you by a name that upsets you so much..." Alice said softly, stroking the cat's back.

The cat purred appreciatively. "My real name is Edward. Edward Eldritch."

Alice smiled. "That's a nice name."

"Certainly has more of a ring to it than Cheshire Cat, huh?" Edward asked bitterly.

Alice scooped him up and scratched him behind the ears. "Don't worry, Edward. After the Queen of Hearts is gone, the White Queen can put you right again. And if she can't, I'll find a way."

"Thank you, Alice." he all but purred. "You have no idea how much that means to me."

"It's the least I can do. If not for you, I'd have already fallen into the Queen of Hearts' traps."

Edward purred loudly, though whether from the petting or Alice's praises, it was hard to tell.

After a few more minutes, Edward batted Alice's arm with his paw. "Come on. We should try to get there before daybreak if possible." he jumped down from Alice's arms and she could just see him, moving nimbly through the dark woods.

Alice followed as best she could, putting the poise and balance she learned in gymnastics to use in not making noise as she picked her way through the underbrush.

**AN: Here we go, here we go. It's a-starting. But what's a-starting, that I'll keep to myself for now if you can't see it too. **


	6. Chapter 5: In Which Alice Meets 2

**Chapter 5: In Which Alice Meets the March Hare**

By dawn, they had reached the rickety seaside cottage the March Hare called home.

Edward grinned up at Alice. "You're fast. How do you do it?"

"I've been in gymnastics programs since I was a little girl. I had to learn to be fast, graceful, and balanced if I wanted to do anywhere near well."

Edward nodded thoughtfully, then turned and pawed at the door. "Hare, open up. It's your friend the cat."

The door swung open, and a weird, whispery child's voice sang, "Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the queen. Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair."

Alice took a step back, looking apprehensive.

Edward chuckled. "Don't worry, Alice. The Hare is good people, if a little insane." he peered up at Alice. "Don't you trust me?" he asked.

"O-of course I trust you. Aside from saving my life, you're helping with a mission I'd have no idea how to complete on my own."

Edward smiled. "I'm glad. Now come on, time's a' wastin'." and he entered the home of the March Hare.

Alice followed.

The 'March Hare' turned out to be an elderly woman with long white hair and vacant dark eyes. "Put another log on the fire," she bid Alice with an empty smile, gesturing off into nowhere.

"Why do they call her the March Hare?" Alice whispered to Edward, curtsying before the March Hare.

"Because her real name is Marscha O' Hare. After she drove herself insane, she thought it'd be clever to take s, a, and o out of her name and call herself March Hare."

Alice nodded in understanding, and Edward placed his paws on the March Hare's knee. "Hare, this is very important. We need you to tell us where the White Queen is. Alice has to help her. Alice is the Golden Star of Hope." he told Alice under breath, "Do what I'm doing!"

So Alice kneeled and placed her hands on the Hare's other knee. The Hare reached out and petted Alice's hair. "Twinkle, twinkle little Star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle little Star, how I wonder what you are." she crooned.

"Yes, Hare." Edward said. "That's right. How about a riddle?"

She clapped in delight. "Riddles! Riddles! Me first!" she paused to think, then clapped again."First name the one who lives in disguise. Who deals in secrets, and tells naught but lies.

Next tell me the sound often heard, during the search for a hard-to-find word. Then tell me the letter to lend, at the middle of the middle and end of the end.

Put all together and answer me this: what is a creature you wouldn't want to kiss?" she asked.

"One who lives in disguise...that'd be a spy...that next bit is...er...er..." Edward mumbled.

"Spy, er...spy, er..." Alice said under her breath.

"SPIDER!" Alice and Edward yelled at the same time.

The March Hare giggled and clapped enthusiastically, then looked at Alice. "Your turn." she said, and then recited. "Jack tried to be nimble, Jack tried to be quick, but what part burned him, when he jumped over the candlestick?

Alice frowned, visualizing in her mind. 'He jumped over...and got burned... "The wick!" she cried.

The Hare giggled again and turned back to Edward. "I've got one more bit of advice for you boy: to find the answers you seek, question the one who was taken from Troy."

"Helen." he answered with an air of lazy confidence. "Helen of Troy was kidnapped by the Grecian prince Paris, sparking the Trojan War."

The answer quite clearly spelled out a name: Spiderwick, Helen.

The March Hare giggled, clapped her hands and ran into the back of her cottage. She didn't re-emerge herself, but she did throw a dress and cloak to them. A note that read "disguise for you" in shaky, childish writing was attached.

Edward turned his back so Alice could change into the clothes.

As they left, Alice said. "We asked for a place and she gave us a name. Edward, tell me, does the name 'Helen Spiderwick' mean anything to you?"

Edward smiled. "Yes, it does. And exactly what it means to me is that the Hare was telling us the White Queen is hiding in the tomb of Helen Spiderwick.

**AN: Dun dun dun dun! Who is Helen Spiderwick? Was the Hare telling the truth? Why am I asking you readers questions you don't know the answers to? Find out in Chapter 6: In Which the White Queen is Discovered. Review please!**


	7. Chapter 6: In Which the White Queen Is

**Chapter 6: In Which the White Queen is Discovered**

"But who is Helen Spiderwick, exactly?" Alice asked after they'd stopped for the night.

"Helen Spiderwick was a big-time supporter of the White Queen. She was very wealthy, very powerful, and very patient about getting what she wanted. That combination meant death for the Queen of Hearts when she first took over. So, Queenie had old Helen poisoned, and ordered the body burned. But before C-day(cremation day, that is), the body was stolen from royal custody and hidden by some of Helen's most faithful servants. The tomb they made her has been called 'Helen's Sunken Mausoleum'." Edward answered.

"And that's where we're headed?" Alice asked.

Edward nodded. "It's said to be hidden in an enchanted pool under a layer of ice. There's a riddle that tells how to crack the ice and get down to the Mausoleum, but I don't know how it goes."

"Why do we need to? I mean, if it's there, then..." Alice trailed off.

"If I knew the riddle, we could solve it and get the tool we need to crack the ice before hand, and save ourselves a lot of time." Edward said. "But you're right. No use dwelling on what can't be helped. Well, goodnight, Alice."

"Goodnight, Edward."

Two nights later, they came upon a perfectly round pool about four feet in diameter, and covered with crystal-clear ice.

"Now to find the riddle..." Edward mumbled, visibly un-tensing at the sight of the pool.

"I be the guardian of this pool. What business have ye here?" a female voice rang from across the pond. A pale girl with deep blue eyes and fiery red hair dressed in black and jade green emerged from the woods.

"We come in search of Helen's Sunken Mausoleum." Edward told her, tail twitching excitedly.

"Ye will only find it if ye can solve the riddle." she said, and recited, "A holy flower and a flame, are often one and the same. If you cannot play the game, Fool, pay the price."

"Holy flower!?" Edward hissed. "What's she playing at? There aren't any flowers near here, and if there were, how would we know they whether or not they're holy flowers?"

"Maybe she doesn't mean an actual flower." Alice suggested. "Maybe 'holy flower' is a metaphor for something."

"But what could it be for? There's nothing here but the trees, the pond...and _her_." he looked shocked(as much as a cat can, anyway).

"The only thing it makes sense to apply the metaphor 'holy flower' to is someone, probably a young woman or girl, deeply devoted to their religion." Alice said.

Edward nodded. "That makes sense. 'Flower' can used to describe shy or virginal young women, and 'holy', well, that's pretty much a no-brainer. But what about the holy flower being the same as a flame?" his eyes widened. "Her hair! Her hair is flaming red!"

"Excuse me miss...what's your name?" Alice asked.

"Erzebet." The girl replied tonelessly.

"What a pretty name! It means 'devoted to God', right?" Alice asked.

Erzebet nodded.

"And if you're the holy flower, then the flames would be your hair, right? _You're_ the answer to the riddle, aren't you, Erzebet?" Edward asked.

Erzebet's only response was to kneel before the pool like a mechanical doll, splaying her flaming hair out across the ice. And the moment the first strands touched the ice, it combusted into flames, melting the ice.

Alice and Edward turned to congratulate each other, but even as the words left their lips, the world went black and everything faded into oblivion.

When they woke up, they stood on the steps of a cathedral-like building that seemed to built entirely of pure black marble with faint veins of white running through the stones.

"This must be the place." Edward whispered.

Alice nodded, then said, "Wait! How can we breathe and talk down here? It shouldn't be possible."

"I guess they call it an enchanted pool for a reason." Edward said with a grin.

"I guess," Alice agreed, tugging open one of the tall, warped wooden doors. Inside, all the water drained out, and in the center of the room, sunken into the floor, was a black marble casket.

Edward ran and jumped up on top of it, then wiped some silt off the lid, reading the inscription. "Aha!" he cried, tail twitching in triumph.

"What?" Alice asked, coming over to his side.

"I know where to find the White Queen now." he said with a smile. He jumped off Helen Spiderwick's casket and ran to the far side of the room. Alice followed and saw a door when she got there. She pushed, and it yielded.

All that was in the next room was a black wrought-iron candle holder with a half-melted black candle in it under a white canopy.

"All we have to do is light that candle, and a trap door leading to the White Queen should appear." Edward said, eagerness and hope clear in his voice.

"But Helen Spiderwick died after the White Queen went into hiding, right?" Alice asked. "So then how-"

"It might not lead to another part of the tomb." said Edward. "Maybe, by the time the tomb was built, She had gotten a communication to Helen's servants about where she was, so they could build a passage in the tomb that lead to her for when the Golden Star of Hope appeared."

"Makes sense." Alice murmured, leaning down and picking a box of kitchen matches up off the floor. "And look, they even left us a way to light the candle." She struck match into flame and held it to the wick. And even as the wick caught flame, a trapdoor slid open in the floor.

"Alice!" Edward cried.

She whirled around and saw the door in the floor. "Let's go." she said, scooping Edward up and heading down the stairs. But before they got halfway down, the figure of a pale, white-haired woman dressed all in white ran up to them.

"Did you open the door?" she asked them breathlessly.

**AN: Is this the White Queen? Or another ploy by the Queen of Hearts? Tune in next time to find out! Peace, my peeps!**


	8. Chapter 7: In Which Feelings Are

**AN: Sorry there hasn't been an author's note the last two chapters I kinda forgot because I've just been uploading while waiting for my Rozen Maiden episodes to upload. Go Shinku! w00t!**

**Shinku: Thank you. sips tea**

**Anyway, warnings: fluff, the power of lurve, WTFripoffofthesecondendofTenchinTokyo**

**Disclaimer: Have I mentioned lately that I don't own Alice in Wonderland?**

**Well, I don't. Review please.**

**Chapter 7: In Which Feelings Are Discovered**

"Are you...the White Queen?" Alice asked.

"Yes, but who are you?" the White Queen asked.

"The Golden Star of Hope, your majesty." Alice said, setting Edward down to curtsy.

"Wonderful!" the White Queen clapped her hands in delight. "And you have such a handsome cat!"

Alice fidgeted. "Actually, that's-"

"It's me, your majesty." Edward said. "Edward Eldritch."

The White Queen gasped in horror. "Oh, Edward. _She_ did this to you, didn't she?"

Edward bowed his head. The queen smiled at him. "It doesn't matter." she said. "It's an easy enough spell to reverse."

She pointed her finger at Edward and said an incantation.

His limbs lengthened, his paws grew into hands and feet, the fur retracted, being replaced by skin and clothes everywhere but his head, where it grew longer, silkier, and bound itself into a ponytail. His face changed, widening and growing until the features fit the face of a young man and the only trace of feline in him was in his eyes.

Then he stood and put a hand to his head. He felt his face, his hair, and looked over his body in amazement. After a few minutes of this, he jumped up and bowed respectfully to the White Queen. "Thank you, your majesty."

The queen giggled. "Think nothing of it, Edward." Then, to Alice, she whispered, "Take care of him."

"_Wh-what_?" Alice asked, blushing.

"Oh, please. I'm old, not dead. This boy is crazy about you." The White Queen told Alice, jerking her thumb at Edward.

"Y-your majesty!" Edward stammered, also blushing.

The queen giggled impishly again. "And you see? There's the proof!" Then she immediately sobered up. "Now, we have to hurry out of here. The Queen of Hearts may know even now that I've come out of hiding. That was as long as the spell I put in place to make it unplottable was made to last. Now she'll know where to find us if she should happen to look at a map."

"What will happen to this place?" Alice asked, following Edward and the White Queen as they walked briskly toward the entrance to the tomb.

"After we leave, the ice will recover the pool. Erzebet will revive, and the Queen of Hearts won't be able to come down here unless she solves the riddle properly. If she tries any other way, the spirits in the water will make her drown." The White Queen said, blasting the door open. They were transported to the surface, and even as they watched, the ice re-covered the pool, and Erzebet's burnt body began to regenerate.

"What happens if she solves the riddle?" Alice asked quietly.

"She won't." The White Queen said. "She's terrible at riddles. That's why she's doing all this. She lost in a riddle-solving contest to me a longer number of years ago than I'd care to admit." The queen said with a comforting smile

"She's doing this...because of a game?" Alice asked.

"Yes. We played against each other in a riddle-solving contest, and she's hated me ever since."

Alice's legs buckled, and she fell into Edward, laughing hysterically. "So," she said between laughs, "this, this 'Queen of Hearts' took over Wonderland, had Helen Spiderwick, the Mad Hatter's Dinah, and ten women from my world _killed_, forced you into hiding in a _tomb_, made the March Hare drive herself _insane_, turned Edward into a _cat_, and any number of _other_ awful things, all because she's a _sore loser_!?" she laughed again, soon starting to sob into Edward's chest.

He blushed, but stroked her hair and murmured soothing little nothings in her ear. Suddenly, he tensed, and she looked up. The White Queen was pale and drawn, but still looked determined and extremely regal, and in front of her stood the Queen of Hearts, the face that mirrored Eleanor's twisted into an evil, smug, superior smirk, the insane eyes wide and gleaming with hatred and anticipation and bloodlust.

She turned to Alice, and suddenly the face wore that same crooked smile Alice had grown up seeing. Eleanor's smile. She held Eleanor's arms out, smiled her smile even bigger and coaxed in Eleanor's soft, flute-y voice. "Come on, Al. It's alright. I'm here now."

But the look from before stayed in Alice's head, that look just short of being the epitome of evil. 'That's not Ella,' Alice thought. 'She'd never wear a look like that!' "You're not my sister!" she yelled.

The Queen of Hearts sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that. Well, if you're not _with_ me, you're _against_ me, and I just can't have that, considering who you are, miss Golden Star of Hope." she threw an orb of black magic at Alice.

Alice gasped, but before she could try to defend herself, Edward pushed her away and took the hit. He flew back several feet, slammed into a tree, and lost consciousness. At the same time, the Queen of Hearts, imprisoned the White Queen in an energy draining cage to prevent her from helping out in anyway.

Then, the Queen of Hearts smirked and magicked up a sword, stalking toward the prone inventor to finish the job.

Alice rushed over, trying to revive him. "Edward. Edward, please. You have to wake up. Please. _I love you_." she kissed him, just as the Queen of Hearts went to strike.

The aforementioned howled in pain and staggered away, nearly dropping her sword.

"Of course..." the White Queen murmured. "Alice!" she called from her prison. "The Queen of Hearts draw her power from instilling fear and hatred in others. As long as you stay strong and keep your heart open, she can't touch you! Think about it, Alice! Nothing can break the bonds of love you shared with your parents and sisters, not even death! The love they had for you still lives on in your memories of them! And Edward would obviously die before letting you get hurt! Isn't that so, Alice? Think of everything your family gave for you, everything Edward is willing to give for you, and stay strong!"

"Silence!" the Queen of Hearts shrieked, making the cage drain the White Queen's energy at a faster rate. She screamed in agony as the energy was practically ripped from her body.

But it was too late Alice had already heard. Her eyes dimmed in thought, and one hand went to her heart. Her parents, so sweet and quirky. Mom, always with a plate of fresh, warm, chocolate chip cookies and a kind word, and Dad, who had never hesitated to fix his girls' cars and hearts whenever either broke down.

Eleanor, with her powerful manner and strong, artistic hands, who had once taken a kendo bokken to the head of some creep who'd tried to snatch Alice, and whose aloof, attitudal exterior had hidden a soft, caring artist from the world.

Rosemary, who had helped vandalize yearbook pictures of the old classmates Alice couldn't stand, who had convinced her that some of the guys she broke up with weren't worth crying over and mimed her father's stuffy business associates behind their backs to amuse her bored little sister.

And Edward, who's smile made her heart leap to her throat and sent butterflies racing around her stomach at ninety miles an hour, who had helped her on a mission that would have been overwhelming if she'd had to go it alone, and whose companionship had helped heal some of the pain of losing her family.

'Yes,' she thought. 'The White Queen is absolutely right. I have the one weapon the Queen of Hearts just can't seem to understand, and I've had it all along. There was never any need to be frightened of her.'

She snapped back to reality, looking as though she'd just grasped some deep, fundamental truth. She ran toward the Queen of Hearts, knocking the sword from her hand and pinning her hands behind her back before evil queen could formulate a defense. "That," Alice murmured, "is something the real Eleanor taught to me. Now, why don't you give up? You're not really evil. Somehow, I can sense that under all the hatred and arrogance, you have a basically good heart."

The Queen of Hearts shrieked. "Let go of me this instant!"

Alice rested a knee on her back in the classic police take-down position. "I won't.

Not until you realize this: you're hurt, and angry, and feel like the whole world is against you, and I understand that, but...that doesn't make it right to go around carelessly destroying lives! I felt the same way just after the fire, because it didn't seem fair to me that other people could still laugh and smile after I had lost everything I had to live for...but at times like that, you just have to put the pieces back together and move on. Throwing a temper tantrum _isn't_ going to make things change."

The Queen of Hearts let out a small sob, and Alice helped her to her feet and hugged her. "We can never forget the hurt we've experienced in our lives, but because we're human, in time, we learn to live with it and move on. You've been letting your anger and hurt control you for so long. Aren't you ready to try and move on?"

The Queen of Hearts fell to her knees, sobbing, simultaneously freeing the White Queen and casting off Eleanor's appearance. In reality, she could have been a twin to the White Queen except that she wore black. She looked at the White Queen and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, sister, for being so horrid to you all over a riddle-solving contest. But I don't think we can go back to the way things were just yet. It'll take time for me not to be such an angry person, and until that time comes, I'm going to go to sleep until I know I can be better behaved." and so saying, she fell unconscious.

Edward, who had been awake from about the time Alice rushed the Queen of Hearts, suddenly spoke. "Alice."

Alice whirled and ran to him. "Edward!" she helped him up, and he kissed her. Just as she began to return the kiss, he pulled away.

"I need you to do something for me, Alice." he said.

"What?"

He smiled sadly and cupped her cheek. "I need you to wake up."

She looked at him in confusion, then, as if she were hearing it from the receiving end of a bad telephone connection, Nurse Monroe's voice began to echo softly in her ear. "Alice! Alice! Please, wake up, Alice!"

Alice was whisked out of Edward's arms in a blur of indistinct color, and she woke up laying on the lawn of Watertown Hospital.

"Was that all a dream? But it felt so real..." Alice murmured, putting a hand to her head. "But then, that means..."

'Edward Eldritch doesn't even exist. I fell in love with a figment of my own imagination.'

**AN: Le gasp! Could it be true? Would the authoress be so cruel? Why am I asking things like this again? Find out in the next chapter! Seeya!**


	9. Epilogue: In Which Happily Ever After

**Alice: Inside the Looking Glass**

**Lady Moon-Chan**

**AN: The epilogue, at last. Warnings: WTF, **

**And as for the disclaimer, well...Lewis Carroll is male and dead. I'm female and alive. You know what that means.**

**Review please!**

**Epilogue: In Which It Ends**

"So, why are we going in?" Alice asked. "It isn't really time to go to the room yet, is it?"

Nurse Monroe shook her head. "There was a medical seminar a few days ago, and one of the doctors we sent told a burn specialist from California about you, and now he wants to meet you."

"Is he going to take me back to California with him?" Alice asked.

Nurse Monroe giggled. "Maybe. If you make a good enough impression."

"I think that'd be good for me, don't you? There's too many memories around here for me to do any _real_ emotional healing..." Alice murmured.

Nurse Monroe nodded, smiling a little sadly. "He's in there. Good luck."

Alice nodded to her and went through the door.

"Hello, Miss Walker." A cool male voice greeted. Alice looked at its owner and gasped. Edward Eldritch was seated across from her at the table, dressed as a doctor!

'No!' she reminded herself. 'Edward was only a dream.' Then she said, "Hello, Dr..."

"Eldritch. Edward Eldritch." He grinned cattily.

"Hello, Dr. Eldritch." Alice said tonelessly.

The doctor tsked. "Alice, you wound me. You said you loved me when we were battling the Queen of Hearts, and now here you are giving me the cold shoulder."

Alice gasped. "E-Edward? It really is...you?"

He grinned again, opening his arms. "Who else? Now give some sugar, as they say in the South."

She smiled and launched herself into his arms. "Oh, Edward! It really is you! I was so worried when I woke up here! I thought I had somehow made you up!" she gave a little sob of relief. "I love you. " After a few seconds, "But Edward, how did you...?"

"The White Queen helped set it up. She said not to come back unless it was something we both wanted. And I love you too, Alice. Now let's blow this Popsicle stand, huh?"

She nodded, and once they left the hospital, they drove into the sunset, putting Watertown at their backs forever."

**AN: Well, that's the end of the story. Review and tell me what you thought, huh? Side note: Nurse Monroe is a cameo of Dinah Wherever from Bizenghast getting married to Vincent Monroe. **


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